


baby's gone blue

by unctna



Category: Mr. Robot (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-04
Updated: 2016-10-04
Packaged: 2018-08-19 06:33:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8193866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unctna/pseuds/unctna
Summary: Hello, friend. We're still friends, right? Its been a while, but I still trust you so I'll tell you what you've missed.AU in which Elliot somehow ends up working at Evil Corp instead of Allsafe. Tyrell notices him and becomes kind of infatuated. fsociety hasn't been established although Mobley and Trenton are still in the story, and it may become important later.





	

Hello there, friend. We're still friends, right? Its been a while, but I still trust you so I'll tell you what you've missed. Angela wanted me to get a job at Allsafe, which was probably my best bet, but somehow news about me spread to the wrong people. That's the part that always confused me the most. I'm as careful as possible about my night job, a fucked up form of vigilante justice done at my keyboard, but one wrong person and suddenly the whole world knows. Well, only Evil Corp, but that's just as bad. Someone reached out to me (kidnapped, brought to an empty warehouse), a woman in a sharp suit with an unremarkable face, handed me a folder of enough evidence to send me to jail and told me about a job opportunity. She never elaborated about the folder, but the message was clear enough. She told me that I would receive a much higher starting position than normal, as a sign of their trust and hope for me. I thought it was bullshit.

I told her I wanted to think about it. Mostly I wanted to tell Angela and Darlene about it. Evil Corp was still responsible for my father's death and I still held that unmovable grudge against them, but I never did trust my own judgement too much. She said that wouldn't be possible. After about a minute of my thoughts crashing around in my head, I resolved to turn her down.

For some reason my mouth didn't get the memo.

Suddenly I was being handed all this paper work and being smiled at and the folder full of evidence disappeared. When I told Angela and Darlene they were furious. It was hard to tell which was angrier, Angela in all her rigid cold fury, silent and righteous, or Darlene with all her glares and screams and accusations. I didn't try to defend myself, I knew it was wrong. Why did I do it? Change of scenery? Maybe as a way to take them down from the inside? My intentions were as unclear to myself as they were to Angela and Darlene.

"Do you not want to work with me or something? Is that why you couldn't take the job at Allsafe?" Angela had asked, too icy and clinical to sound hurt. I tried my best to find an excuse but I mostly just fumbled my way through until she got fed up and left. Darlene stared daggers from her place on my couch.

"Look," Darlene would say a week later (she had been screamed out and resorted to silent treatment). "I don't know why you did this, and I don't think you know why either. I'm honestly hoping you didn't just randomly decide you don't give a fuck about dad, so we might as well make the most of this shit fest." I remember thinking that it would possibly be a good time to smile, but I was too busy staring at her in wide eyed panic.

"Elliot, just... Maybe we can like, destroy them or whatever. From the inside out. Remember fsociety?" She asked tiredly, pulling up her knees to nestle them under her chin.

"That's... No, Darlene. I thought we talked about- _You're_ the one that was so against that plan- I don't- I-"

"Okay yeah that was also before you decided to fucking _join_ enemy number one, alright? So we can at least try to work with what we have, or you can go frolic around sucking corporate dick and pretend everything's fine."

"I could always quit." _Lie._

"Lie," Darlene said monotonously. I was so high strung I almost flinched. "They'll send you to jail if they really do have evidence against you. And knowing Evil Corp, it will be for a long, _long_ time."

"They would have done that if I had turned the offer down in the first place," I responded, sounding confused as hell (hint: I was). "Why is this any different?"

Darlene swiveled her head around, avoiding the question by looking around my apartment in fake curiosity. Her eyes settled on Qwerty when she finally answered. "It's not. I don't know about Angela but if you came to me and asked me what you should have done, I would have told you to take the job. I don't want to see my brother rot in a fucking prison just because our dad just happened to work at one of the shittiest companies in existence."

"He... he fucking died because of that place, Darlene-"

"So that means you have to throw your life away?" She said, suddenly in my face. "I'm not saying everything is hunky fucking dory, but taking the job will give you more options than getting sent to jail, Elliot."

For a while I was just quiet. She was right, really, I was just thinking about the shit I had gotten into. I wiped a hand over my face and sat down on my bed.

"Also... Sorry. For getting all shout-y as if this is all your fault. I wasn't really angry at you, just angry in general. We never really did learn how to handle our anger," Darlene tried to joke, but it just fell flat between the two of us, reopening old wounds. I was already half gone.

When I came back around, Darlene had already left. Shayla was in my kitchen yelling about Swedish furniture and conspiracy theories as she stirred something in a pot. It smelled like sodium and more sodium, but my stomach was growling so when she handed me a bowl I didn't complain.

"Chicken noodle soup, family recipe," Shayla chirped with a smile. The Campbell soup cans in the trash made me smile in return. I was still sitting on my bed but Shayla had seated herself at the small little dining table in the kitchen, eyeing me with concern.

"So," She said after a while. "What's up with you? I was checking to see if Vera was here and up you pull in some fancy SUV. If there's some spy shit going down, I want in."

"Oh it's... nothing really, job related I guess," I fumbled through the answer and it was painfully obvious that I was hiding something. Thankfully Shayla let it go, used to the business of not asking too many questions.

"You need any refills, then? I got more suboxone in yesterday." I just nodded in response, getting up to grab my wallet before she started waving at me. "Nah it's on the house for you," Shayla smiled.

I didn't say anything, just placed the money on the table next to her bowl and took the meds out of her hand. Shayla tucked the money in her pocket, sighing in mock defeat. She was still smiling.

* * *

A while has passed. I start my job today. I've already forgotten my job title, assistant something, but the same lady from the warehouse was waiting in the reception room for me. I hope she doesn't have a temper, but it's hard to tell from her large plastic smile.

"Mr. Alderson! How good it is to see you! Some of my associates thought you would back out on us, but you're braver than they think," she said, her smile getting a little warmer around the edges. I preferred the plastic, if I was being honest.

"Oh yeah. Thanks," I said awkwardly.

"Because we already know each other, I'll be showing you around the main areas of the building before handing you off to your supervisor," she beamed, almost unnaturally cheery considering the hour. "Oh, I almost forgot! My name is Josephina Rodriguez but you can call me Jo, if you have any questions feel free to ask!" She waited for me to respond but after a minute of stiff silence she just nodded and started the tour. To her credit, she was pretty good at handling awkwardness.

We ended up in my department, something about prevention and tech (probably just a fancy term for the IT department). Rodriguez brought me to a fat bald man named Peter and exchanged a few words but I was too busy thinking to hear what they were. Then Rodriguez was gone and Peter had my hand in a meaty handshake. I tried not to flinch, but my bug eyed blinking was probably off putting enough to make him drop it with an awkward chuckle. It had been an awkward morning overall.

"Mr. Alderson! We've heard great things, great things," he beamed. He almost reached out to pat me on the shoulder but he crossed his arms instead at the last second. I liked him, he probably wasn't a complete moron. "I'm Peter Krauss, head of the department and also your supervisor." Silence indicated he was expecting an answer, so I nodded my head and hoped he would continue. "So then, shall we?" He held a clipboard in his left hand and raised his right towards the office space, smiling through a short beard.

He walked me through the small little corridors throughout the cubicles and showed me his office before bringing me to my own cubicle. "If you have any questions, feel free to ask me!" Then he was gone. Nobody had given me anything to do yet. Was that a mistake or were they just letting me get used to the space before giving any work? Evil Corp didn't give enough of a fuck to do that, so it was probably a mistake. I thought about hacking Peter or maybe Jo, but it would look incredibly bad to be caught with your boss' personal information pulled up on your computer. Especially on the first day. I started texting Darlene through that app Mobley showed me.

**To: Darlene, 7:32 AM**

> **hey whats up.**

**From: Darlene, 7:33 AM**

> **Whats up?? Elliot u just entered god damn evil corp, i wanna know whats going on!!!! Whats it like? Did u see any dead babies yet?**

**To: Darlene, 7:36 AM**

> **no torture chambers or dead babies. maybe theyve changed their ways.**

**From: Darlene, 7:38 AM**

> **Bullshit!! Thats what they want u 2 think**

**From: Darlene, 7:38 AM**

> **Ur gonna be hacking some hacker 1 day and BAM u see dead babies in the lobby!!!! But then ur in 2 deep!! An accomplice!!!**

**To: Darlene, 7:40 AM**

> **i'll keep that in mind. they havent given me anything to do yet which is weird. im just sitting here.**

**From: Darlene, 7:41 AM**

> **Omg. Elliot. Do u realize what that means. U have 2 hack them!!!**

**To: Darlene, 7:41 AM**

> **actually i dont wanna get fired on my first day. or go 2 jail rly.**

**From: Darlene, 7:42 AM**

> **Pussy. Just like, check out their security or whatever. Outstanding employee over here, fuckin checkin 4 ways 2 be hacked. They'll luv it!!!!!**

I kind of knew how shitty of an idea it was, but I was bored and no one seemed to care so I started pulling up info. I would just look around, see where their weaknesses are, and if anyone caught me I could just say I was probing the network for holes in security. Probably won't word it like a bad sexual innuendo when the time comes.

I lost track of time as I typed, finding exactly what I expected. Security was airtight. Not quite, there were a lot of glaring ways to get into it, but it was nothing to really tell anyone about. Somewhere in the back of my mind, fsociety was still a very real possibility. I filed those weak spots away, hoping that I would remember them if fsociety was actually created. At that point I didn't really know what I was doing, opening up gateways just because I could and falling into a rabbit hole of white words on a black screen. Then somebody was talking.

"Oh hi, Tyrell Wellick. Senior Vice President of Technology." I shook his hand to be courteous, seeing as he could probably fire me just for looking at him wrong.

"Elliot," I responded with a shrug of my shoulders. "Just a tech." I might as well spelled out _why the fuck are you talking to me_ in neon lights, but Tyrell just smiled.

"Don't be so humble," he said, finally looking to see what was on my screen. I was honestly expecting some sort of reprimand, questioning, maybe even getting fired. He just laughed and leaned down near me to get a better look. "Wow, that's really amazing. I do have to say though, I hope you're not hacking us on your first day, Elliot."

Weird. Didn't say it was my first day, or am I just that obvious?

"Oh I was just checking to see what type of security set up you guys have, will make it easier to prevent anything in the future." I hoped nodding continuously would help sell my bullshit excuse. Tyrell looked impressed but I couldn't tell if it was fake or not.

"That's some good thinking," he smiled, straightening back up and slipping his hands in his pockets. "It's gonna be fun working with you. I should go join the rest of the group. Bonsoir, Elliot," Tyrell called over his shoulder, already making his way back to the other fancy looking executives.

That. Was fucking weird. What do you think? I turn back to my screen, mind already somewhere else. It was probably nothing anyways.

On my way home I notice more men in suits. Even though its barely sunset, I fall asleep as soon as I reach my bed. I dream of riots and masks and a familiar voice calling out to me but I forget it all as soon as I wake up.

I decided to hack Tyrell Wellick.

It's almost 5AM but I wasn't going back to sleep and Tyrell's strange introduction had begun itching at me. I booted up my computer and went to feed Qwerty while I waited. When I pulled up his information (extremely easy, strange for a higher up), I only got more paranoid. Everything was in order, nothing out of the ordinary, a perfect life. It was as if every little taboo had been erased completely. As if he was expecting me to hack him, and let me.

I had to wipe everything.

* * *

After that I had some morphine and blanked for a while. I barely made it to work on time. The men in suits are everywhere, in the corner of my eye, constantly watching. I was numb for a while but when the drugs wore off I got paranoid about Tyrell again. He never showed up, so that's probably a good sign.

Except wait, the universe fucking hates me, so on my way home I got practically kidnapped and brought back to Evil Corp. By the time we got in the elevator and entered one of the upper floors, I was too much of a mess to focus on anyone, just a bunch of men in suits arguing until once face is brought into clarity.

"Bonsoir, Elliot."

Fuck.

Please tell me you see this too.

All the suits go to sit down and then Tyrell is saying something about his lawyers and banks and willpower before I finally snap out of it.

"I want to promote you to head of the cybersecurity division." What. "You'll be a multimillionaire within the next five years," Tyrell continued, leaning back in his chair with a smug smile on his face. "What do you say?"

Everyone turned to look at me. "Can I- Can I think about it?"

Tyrell was still smiling but it didn't reach his eyes. "Gentlemen I need the room," he said, dropping the smile. The lawyer to his right leaned over to say something but he waved him off. The lawyers stare at me as they leave.

"You know," Tyrell started after they left. "After Terry Colby retires, I'm next in line to be CTO. I will be the youngest executive this company has ever seen," he said wondrously, gesturing with his hands. He chuckled and stood up, walking towards me determinedly. Once he was in my personal space, no amount of backing up got him out of it. He ignored all social cues and pressed on, only a half a foot of space between us. "I'm making my way up, Elliot. When I'm at the top, I want you to be where you belong. Here, with me." I looked up at that. "This is an important choice you're making. I just wanted you to know all the facts before you make your final decision."

Alarm bells were going bat shit crazy in my head.

"I think I'm... I think I'm happy where I am," I said wide eyed, immediately looking at the floor. This was awkward as hell. I could practically feel his disappointment. I heard him walk to the window, defeat echoing in his footsteps.

"Well. I thought I'd ask."


End file.
